In 1992 O&A host Roger Martin and I celebrated the first year of going Out and
About with a special segment detailing the events of the first year. The segment
was entitled “One One- Hundredth of a Century” and the ten minute compilation
of clips from the previous year’s segments took us from our very humble first
episode, right through episode 26. Who could have guessed that this modest
compendium of clips would be just the first in a long line of Out and About
adventures that would take us north to British Columbia, south to Arizona and
New Mexico and as far east as Illinois. In the more than twenty five years of
going “Out & About” we have learned that southern California offers an endless
array of opportunities for travel and adventure, for exploration and education,
and more than ever, an appreciation for everything we encounter from the
mundane to the profound and all things in between.

Click, click. I catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of my right eye while I feel
and hear a slight flutter of wings. Two more of them: click, click. In the darkness
at the mouth of the cavern I can see them silhouetted against the jet black sky.
Counting bats as they entered and exited the cave was one of the duties we
assumed during a trip to Yuma, Arizona joining world-renown bat biologist Pat
Brown to study and count California Leaf-Nosed Bats which make their home
inside abandoned mine shafts. It is around 11:00 pm and as I click the button on
the “bat counter” I hear a rustling sound from behind. The sound seems to travel
from different sides of the mine shaft behind me, and I soon detect a low
growling. At that moment I realize that there are more than just bats in this
particular cave.

Our Out & About journeys began on a Catalina Cruise whale watching boat with
the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. Though it was the very first segment we would
shoot, it was eventually edited into the third episode that aired. We always
traveled light: a small camcorder, tripod and external microphone. The Super
VHS format was our recording medium of choice, since it was compact and
inexpensive. We would videotape all of our footage in the field, including
interviews and B-roll, then edit onto ¾” tape, adding music, narration, credits
and titles to form a completed episode that could be aired. While shooting on
location we often rubbed shoulders with the local TV affiliates that covered the
same events like museum openings, art exhibits and the latest zoo attractions. I
noticed we always had a smaller camera than our competitors; the local stations
always possessed the latest state-of-the-art Betacam set ups which dwarfed our
Super VHS equipment. For decades this was our standard shooting method
until we graduated to a digital DVCam format where the camera was much
larger, and the tape much smaller.

It is 7:00 pm in the evening and the desert heat is a blistering 80 degrees as we
gaze at the pink-hued horizon. We are visiting “Matthew”, George Van Tassel’s
grandson to learn about the Integratron and “Giant Rock”, two desert
monuments to the New Age and UFO movement of the 50s and 60s. We spend
the early part of the afternoon visiting the huge boulder in the middle of nowhere
known and “Giant Rock” and Matthew late takes us to the Integratron and
explains the aura that surrounds it. The elder Van Tassel had a storied history of
drawing followers to these two monuments, claiming to channel UFOs and space
travelers to these mystical sandy outposts. After soaking in Matthew’s colorful
stories of space travelers and new age mysticism we return to his desert home.
As we stand in the twilight standing next to Matthew’s four foot above ground
swimming pool, he anxiously stares at the eastern portion of the sky. At one
point his anticipation increases. “Here they come” he eagerly shouts, “watch
there”, pointing to the east. No more than a few moments later, three bright pink
streaks of light shoot across the sky, one after another, in perfect formation, then
vanish into the horizon as quickly as they appear. I sit there my jaw on the
sandy pavement and my video camera 20 feet away packed away in its case.

“Out & About” quickly found its way onto numerous of stations throughout the
Los Angeles area. The program was broadcast and distributed on ¾” format
tapes which were “bicycled” around, a term used to describe the process of
sending copies of a program from station to station, usually in some type of
rotation, and in groups of four so that a new episode could be shown each week.
This involved additional expenses as tapes needed to be purchased, copied and
mailed to numerous stations. Soon, the ¾” tapes were replaced with smaller,
less expensive tape formats like DVC Pro or DVCam, then later to DVD discs. As
the digital age swept over the broadcast industry the physical assets were no
longer needed since digital files uploaded to stations replaced tapes that were
shipped or sent by messenger. Soon many of our shows found their way onto
You Tube where they could continually play to a global audience.

In the Spring of 2009 host Roger Martin fields questions to Darren Julien of
Julien’s Auctions as they prepare for a short interview segment. The Out &
About crew is setting up to cover the opening of singer Michael Jackson’s
auction. The King of Pop is auctioning off furniture, statuary, and memorabilia
from his Neverland Estate and the former Robinsons-May site is decked out with
colorful displays of eclectic furniture, bronze busts and full sized statues, gold
records, video games and full-sized figures like Superman, Spider-man and the
robots from Star Wars. As the camera rolls and Roger is into his first five
minutes of an interview, Darren Julian’s phone rings. “I must take this” he states
as he glances at the phone. After a few nods and “uh huhs” and “yes, I
understand”, a look of frustration settles on his face. Julien eventually says
goodbye and ends the call, before stating that the auction is off: “There’s nothing
I can do” he reluctantly explains, “That was Michael on the phone and he’s
changed his mind.”

Although the bulk of our stories included places to explore, and art and museum
openings we didn’t shy away from serious subjects. There were episodes
covering the aftermath of the Northridge earthquake, and Roger joined
thousands in a city hall march when Occupy LA joined in the national protests
supporting the 99% movement in 2011. Out & About covered numerous UFO
shows, metaphysical events and searched for Bigfoot in Canada during their
annual Sasquatch Convention. Long before the internet became a breeding
ground for conspiracy theories we discovered that cable access TV was a mecca
for fringe programming and it gave us a chance to explore controversial
locations like the Area 51 in Nevada as well Roswell, New Mexico, long
considered ground zero for the modern UFO subculture. A highlight of our UFO-
themed episodes included an unforgettable interview with Travis Walton, known
for his alleged extra-terrestrial abduction as depicted in the feature film “Fire in
the Sky.” And we were lucky enough to include on our program some of
Hollywood’s past and present stars, including William Shatner, Lou Ferrigno,
Dee Wallace, Rick Baker, Bela Lugosi, Jr., Sara Karloff and “I Love Lucy” writers
Madelyn Pugh and Bob Caroll, Jr. Dignitaries of the art world who made
appearances with Roger include street artist Robbie Conal, Horton Plaza and
CityWalk architect Jon Jerde, urban architect Paolo Saleri of the famed Cosanti
and Arcosanti sites in Arizona, and world-renown artist Christo who shared with
us the symbiotic theme of his massive two-continent “Umbrellas Project.”
Pioneers of the scientific world making appearances include Primatologist Jane
Goodall, paleontologist and “Jurassic Park” advisor Jack Horner, astronauts and
American heroes Rick Searfoss and Mae Jemison of the Space Shuttle program,
Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham, Scott Carpenter, member of the original
Mercury 7 program and Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last astronaut
to have walked on the moon, or as an optimist would say, the most recent one to
walk on the moon.

The weather in Oracle, Arizona is dry and cool as we wait outside the imposing
metal door. With a twist of a circular handle resembling a steam valve, the
airlock clicks open like a bank vault and our small group of four step inside,
passing through the threshold that would welcome us to Biosphere 2. The
subject of much debate and controversy in the early 1990’s the hermetically
sealed, self-sustaining metal and glass structure was built as a living laboratory
to test mankind’s ability to survive harsh environments that would normally not
sustain animal or plant life, like the moon or another planet. As we pass through
the doorway we notice the air inside is warm and humid. The two hour visit
takes us to several different habitats or “biomes” including one representing the
desert, a section devoted to agriculture, a rainforest area complete with
simulated rainfall and finally an ocean lagoon containing a living coral reef and
tropical fish. Making our way through a greenhouse full of exotic plants we
cannot help but feel that we are among the privileged few who are fortunate
enough to have entered this special place. As the tour winds down and we
leave Biosphere 2 to re-enter our own natural world we are left humbled by the
magnitude and complexity of it all, with a sense of determination to preserve and
protect our own planet Earth, the fragile Biosphere that we call home.

The technology has shifted over the past two and a half decades. The large
bulky equipment has been replaced by small, lightweight cameras that capture
more exciting and dynamic images which are wearable on your sleeve or on top
of your head. There was a time when our modest camcorder was the smallest of
the cameras we would see at any event, but now it appears to be one of the
larger ones, almost too big and cumbersome for any practical use. But for our
determined group the obsession was never on the technology, but always on the
subject we were exploring. Wherever we were and whatever subject we
covered we treated it like it was the most important and interesting thing we had
ever seen. And although we eventually shifted to shooting on a digital format to
yield a sharper picture, we never wavered when it came to focusing on the
subject and the story which was always placed center stage.

Thirty miles north of Santa Fe New Mexico in the town of Espanola, we hike
through the woods or “the bosque” with Cruz Lopez, a second generation
“Santero.” Like his father Benjamin, Cruz is an artist and a wood carver
specializing in creating holy figures and saints from wood, an art form that is
prevalent in this community known for its group of Santeros. Known as “La
Esquelita” or the little school, the artists carve and paint precious wooden figures
of religious icons like St. Peter, St. John, St. Jude, as well as figures of Jesus
Christ and the Virgin Mary. The exquisite works are as much a testament to
skill as they are a reflection of Faith which runs deep in this quiet Christian
community. Cruz stops and picks up a piece of driftwood. Studying it closely
from all angles, he soon places it in his bag. When asked what he looks for in a
piece of wood meant for carving, he hesitates, then humbly responds: “I look for
the piece in the wood. I can see it before it’s carved; it calls out to me.”

Throughout our various travels we have been blessed with having a faithful crew
to accompany us and we acknowledge the small band of volunteers who have
been with us since the beginning. Friends like longtime location
manager Dianne Wohlleben, contributors like guest-host Konrad Monti who
often serve as Roger’s on-camera foil, and friend and colleague Ann Palmer.
And special thanks go out to Amanda
Martin, Roger’s frequent and very capable co-host. It has been and will continue
to be a privilege to have them along on our adventures. Over the years people
often ask us where we get the ideas for these shows, and occasionally we
worried that we would run out of ideas or events to cover. What began as a
modest project at Beverly Hills Television Station BHTV soon became an all-
encompassing obsession to discover interesting persons, places and activities,
and now after more than twenty-five years and 320 episodes, host Roger Martin
and myself continue to explore adventures and activities in and around Southern
California and the Southwest. Everything from the mundane to the profound and
all things in between.